9:00The TakeawayTMThe Takeaway is a national morning news program that invites listeners to be part of the American conversation. Hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, along with partners The New York Times, BBC World Service, WNYC, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston, deliver news and analysis and help you prepare for the day ahead.

10:00On PointOn Point unites distinct and provocative voices with passionate discussion as it confronts the stories that are at the center of what is important in the world today.

12:00Here and NowHere! Now! Imperative: not to be avoided: necessary. In a typical week, the show will cover not only all the big news stories, but also the stories behind the stories, or some of the less crucial but equally intriguing things happening in the world.

9:00The TakeawayTMThe Takeaway is a national morning news program that invites listeners to be part of the American conversation. Hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, along with partners The New York Times, BBC World Service, WNYC, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston, deliver news and analysis and help you prepare for the day ahead.

10:00On PointOn Point unites distinct and provocative voices with passionate discussion as it confronts the stories that are at the center of what is important in the world today.

12:00Here and NowHere! Now! Imperative: not to be avoided: necessary. In a typical week, the show will cover not only all the big news stories, but also the stories behind the stories, or some of the less crucial but equally intriguing things happening in the world.

Monday, December 2, 2013Exploradio: Breath tests reveal the body's inner chemistryResearchers at the Cleveland Clinic are refining techniques to test the breath for subtle signs of diseaseby WKSU's JEFF ST. CLAIRThis story is part of a special series.

Reporter / HostJeff St. Clair

The breath of Zephyrus carries the west wind, but human breath reveals the inner workings of our cells. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic are using breath tests to diagnose the early stages of several diseases.

Doctors in ancient times were taught to use their sense of smell to help diagnose ailments in patients. A group of researchers in Cleveland are reviving the practice using electronic detectors more reliable than the human nose.

In this week’s Exploradio, WKSU’s Jeff St.Clair explores the growing role of breath tests in detecting disease.

More than what the nose knowsThe Cleveland Clinic’s Raed Dweik doesn’t like to admit it, but he’s a super-smeller. Dweik's not convinced his sensitive nose is a good thing, "… there’s so many bad smells around us it’s more of a curse than a blessing.”

Dweik acknowledges he can identify some diseases by smell.

He says, “if someone has a pseudomonas infection, or a staph infection, or a clostridium difficile infection, they have distinct smells. I don’t like to admit that but I can smell them.”

Our breath, according to Dweik, also contains clues as to what’s going on in our body. We breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide. But in that exhale, our cells give off other chemicals too.

Taking the 'breathprint' of diseasesDweik wondered if his patients’ breath could tell him if there’s something wrong. But even with his experience, and super-smeller curse, Dweik says his nose is not the most reliable way to detect diseases, especially in their early stages.

Using sensitive analytical tools in the lab, Dweik found that trace chemicals in the breath reveal distinct metabolic signatures of liver disease, heart disease, and kidney disease. He measured the the composition of the volatile organic compounds in his patients' breath to find specific patterns, "what we call a ‘breathprint’, like a fingerprint for different diseases.”

He says researchers at the clinic are developing analytical techniques using the breath as a noninvasive diagnostic tool.

“We’ve come a long way from simply smelling, to detecting [disease] early when it’s not smellable by the average human nose.”

A breath sensor for lung cancerAcross campus one team is studying the breathprint of lung cancer and research coordinator Mary Beukemann is about to give me a breath test.

She asks me to breathe through a tube attached to metal box. Inside an electronic nose samples my exhales. It’s a colorimetric sensor whose 64 colored dots change when they come in contact with trace chemicals in my breath. The dots form color patterns that are compared to cancer signatures.

Mazzone says, “the device is engineered to collect just the final portion of the breath where gas exchange occurs between the blood and our lungs.”

Mazzone and his team are gathering data from patients known to have lung cancer, and comparing their signatures with people at risk for the disease. He says lung cancer is more than one disease, and it doesn’t show up the same in everyone.

He says, “there’s probably more than one breath signature and that requires large enough studies to determine which are the appropriate chemicals to look for in the patient you’re seeing in the clinic that day.”

Breath testing comes of ageMazzone and his team are probably a couple of years away from a final version of the device. Then begins the arduous and expensive process of FDA approval. But Mazzone is committed to developing a diagnostic tool that can quickly detect early stages of various diseases noninvasively.

“Seeing patients with lung cancer all the time, it excites me that this could certainly help a whole lot of people.”

Dr. Raed Dweik is at the center of the Cleveland Clinic’s other breath test efforts, diagnosing liver, kidney, and several types of heart disease. He’s also developing an at-home breath test for asthma.

He says, “there’ll be a slew of tests coming up in the next three to five years of tests that will be applicable in clinical practice.”

Dweik says breath tests won’t replace x-rays, blood tests, and other diagnostic techniques, but they may soon be another tool in a clinician’s arsenal, with the promise of a painless, non-invasive look inside the chemical processes of the human body.